Supreme Court's "No Fresh Poll" Proposal Amid Chandigarh Vote-Count Row
NDTV
The controversy broke after a video showed Mr Masih - at the time a member of the BJP's Minority Cell - writing on eight ballot papers - from AAP councillors - before entering them into record.
The eight "defaced" ballot papers - from last month's controversial Chandigarh mayoral election - which are at the heart of a bitter politico-legal fight between the AAP and the BJP must be produced in the Supreme Court at 10.30 am Tuesday, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said this evening.
The court said "no fresh poll" will be required as it attempts to settle the dispute over the outcome of the election, which saw the Bharatiya Janata Party's Manoj Sonkar elected Mayor with a four-vote margin after eight ballots by Aam Aadmi Party councillors were declared "invalid" without apparent cause.
"What we propose to do is this... we will direct the Deputy Commissioner to appoint a fresh Returning Officer, one who is not aligned to any political party. The process shall be taken to the logical conclusion from the stage it stopped before the declaration of results," the Chief Justice said.
